Wagh, incidentally, is affiliated to the Republican Party of India (RPI) and both the groups have been at loggerheads over supremacy in the area for the past several months. On Wednesday night, when Prashant was in the hotel, the group led by Wagh assaulted him. Prashant sustained wounds on his head, hands, feet and stomach. He was rushed to the Bytce municipal hospital by a friend.

The incident sparked off a protest morcha on Thursday by local Shiv Sainiks demanding the arrest of the assailants. The city unit chief of the Sena, Datta Gaikwad, has condemned the attack and accused the local police of being biased.

FOUR KILLED IN HIGHWAY ACCIDENT: Four persons of a family from Ambarnath, Mumbai, were killed and four others were injured when their car rammed into an ST bus on the Mumbai-Agra nationalhighway.

According to the police, two sisters Kalpana and Rekha were proceeding to Dhule, along with their families, to visit their parents on the occasion of Bhau-beej on Thursday. Rekha's 20-year-old son Deepak was driving the car.Around 3.00 pm Deepak lost control over the vehicle and rammed into an ST bus coming from the opposite direction, near Tehare village (Malegaon). Kalpana Ramesh Vanjari (40), her husband Ramesh Tukaram Vanjari (45), her daughter Pallavi (12) and son Rohit (8) died on the spot. The lone survivor of the Vanjari family was Monice (16).

Rekha Kapkar (45), her husband Keshav (50), son Deepak (20), and daughter Aarti (19) were injured in the mishap. The driver was arrested.